[01/16/1999-12/21/1999]: 42-t-26444787-20080359F-001-002-2013

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being published by the U.S. State Department, grading more than 190
nations'
readiness, will shed additional light on this question. But even granting
the possibility that some nations may experience significant interruptions
in technology-dependent functions, it appears increasingly clear that the
urgency of global Y2K remediation efforts may have avoided any kind of
widesprea~ systemic failure. Hopefully, the remaining months will be
adequate ror the industrial world'to complete the most important phases of
its ,corrective plan.
As we pass into to 2000, there are many lessons from the Y2K saga worthy of
study.
First, everyone in Silicon Valley has been given a much-needed wake-up
call.
We have been reminded that no one can "guarantee fitness for a particular
purpose" except the makers. As the pace of techriology innovation continues
through communications and computing and leaps ahead in biogene.tics and
perhaps even propulsion, the completeness of our scenario planning 'and the
rigor of our development methodologies need to be continually improved.
Each
piece of our electronic infrastructure is as dependent upon excellence as a
skyscraper, suspension bridge, airplane, or moon shot. And ,from now on,
society is in the capsule. ' , (
Second, part of the fright of the Y2K problem has been felt because of the
certainty of its timing. Rarely in human experience does the flow of events
allow a specific date to be known for a threatened social crisis. We should
realize that there are far more serious threats to our livelihood than Y2K
ever was, but we simply cannot predict The Date beyond which remediation or
evolution is no longer possible. Recognizing that Y2K's catastrophic
probabilities would not have become improbabilities had various dire
warnings not been made, we must make room in normal, optimistic, and happy
lives for the sober recognition of the reality of other total risks to
human
civilization, and lead and act accordingly. Our inability to predict a date
for ultimate crisis should make us more wary, ~ot less so:
Third, we have glimpsed yet. again the true power of technology in the hands
of natural life. Y2K is an example of how technology magnifies the ability
of human ignorance to threaten human life.
Given a pronounced cusp of discovery and innovation unmatched in human
history, our judgment must race to maintain pace with our knowledge. In
this respect, we might recognize that the next technologically induced
human
crisis is likely to be one in which ~e are afraid not as much of instant
stoppage of' machines, but rather of an, 'inability to slow or stop them.
Our technology systems are simp~y individual robots, now being wired
together with a common nervous system and many developing centers of
function. Each function is increasingly sp,ecialized to meet the needs of
its
constituents and its master. The ideological master of most modern
technology systems is the consumer. You might say that much of the modern
Western person's life is now driven by 'ideotechnomics' -- automation
servant to the customs of an ideologically-framed economy.
The present state of evolution in the ethics of consumerideotechnomics and
its impact on the biosphere of Earth are the study of many concerned and